Words

Know the origins of the names of your favorite Fall foods.

Fall is here, and you're getting hungry. Feast on this cornucopia of etymologies for seasonal veggies straight from the garden.

What is an Irish goodbye—and why is it called that?

Charles Dickens gifted us with plenty of new words and phrases—including ‘not to put too fine a point on it.’

Clichés are viewed as a sign of lazy writing, but they didn’t develop that reputation over night.

Some nouns only have a plural form, regardless of how we think of them. They are known as ‘pluralia tantum,’ Latin for “plural only.”

‘Fuksheet’ is another word for a sail on the foremast of a ship.

To paraphrase Krusty the Clown, comedy isn’t dirty words—it’s words that sound dirty. Here are 50 of them.

Tin foil and aluminum foil are not the same thing.

Union coal miners on strike, August 1, 1993.

By the late 1700s, laborers adopted the insult to refer to workers who wouldn’t join a strike, a union, or take part in organized labor and undermined their fellow workers.

“10-4” isn’t any quicker than saying “OK.” But it is a storied trucker tradition.

The origins and history of the word ‘cakewalk’ may make you want to reconsider using it.

From ‘cakewalk’ to ‘no can do,’ the origins of these common idioms and sayings are surprisingly dark.

The words ‘fall’ and ‘autumn’ appeared around the same time in Great Britain, but only one of the seasonal names is still used there today.

Incorporate these words into your conversations this fall.

Try spicing your fall with a few of these rustic charmers, drawn from the pages of Washington Irving.

“The Drinkers Dictionary,” published by Franklin in the ‘Pennsylvania Gazette’ in January 1737, features terms like ‘nimptopsical’ and ‘cherubimical’ as synonyms for ‘drunk.’

Whatever you do, don’t mess up the meanings of ‘punter.’

You’ll be chuffed after you read this peng British slang list, with bare terms that will keep you from looking like a pillock.

Here are all the new jawns in the dictionary.

Non-Philadelphians can finally look up the meaning of ‘jawn’ in the dictionary.

Stick these terms in your cauldron and pass them around your coven.

“Who, me?” This goat, hearing about the word ‘scapegoat.’

History is filled with figures who were single-handedly—yet often undeservedly—held responsible for epic societal failures. But what do goats have to do with it?